Residential

National home sales jumped by 11.3 per cent between March and April as the real estate market picked up again, but supply remained at a 20 year-low, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for the fourth month of the year was 16,673 units, up six per cent from 15,715 in March.

Pro athletes and senior executives trying to buy a home in Ottawa are among those being affected by the federal government's foreign buyer ban, realtors say. 

Minto Apartment REIT is refinancing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of mortgages as rising interest rates jack up the costs of servicing its debt and eat into its cash flow, the company said this week.

InterRent REIT says occupancy at the Slayte, the 11-storey rental complex at 473 Albert St. it is developing in conjunction with sister company CLV Group, is “quickly approaching” the 50 per cent mark “despite lease-up having mainly occurred during the weaker winter rental months.”

Ottawa house prices have jumped nearly 14 per cent since the end of 2022, pushing the city back into “seller’s market territory,” the president of the Ottawa Real Estate Board said Wednesday.

The federal housing agency is predicting that home prices in the capital will come in at an average of $640,000 on the low end and $700,000 on the high end in 2023.

Builders in Ottawa launched 11,032 new housing units last year, an eight per cent increase from 2021, the national housing agency says in its latest Housing Supply Report released Wednesday.

The proposed structure – which is located north of Rideau Street about 700 metres from the Rideau LRT station and less than 200 metres from several bus stops – would have one level of underground parking with space for 40 cars and 482 bicycles.